I Sell the Dead, the first feature by Glenn McQuaid, opens with grave-robber Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan) telling a priest (Ron Perlman) about how he met friend and co-worker Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden, reprising his role from McQuaid's original short, The Resurrection Apprentice, on which this movie's based). Told with lengthy flashbacks, the story follows Arthur and Willie from regular grave-robbing to "ghouling." The difference? Grave-robbers will only steal the dead, but ghouls will steal "just about anything." They find vampires, aliens, zombies — all sorts of undead creatures and spooks, for which they can make a whole lotta moolah.
Everything's going swimmingly until Fanny (Brenda Cooney, who also appeared in The Resurrection Apprentice), Arthur's lady friend, gets involved. Smelling big money, she convinces Arthur and Willie to embark on a dangerous mission: steal a gig from a rival gang, the House of Murphy — Cornelius (John Speredakos), the man so mean he ate his pet rabbit at age five; Valentine (Heather Bullock), the badly-scarred femme fatale who was set ablaze by a former lover; and Bulger (Alisdair Stewart), the loyal but dumb oaf with dog teeth.
There are bodies out on an island, up for grabs, and Fanny wants the boys to sneak 'em away from the Murphies. They row to the island, and a bloodbath ensues.
I Sell the Dead screams low-budget. Lately "reputable" movies have been getting away with being made on practically nothing (Paranormal Activity being the most notable and successful of these — it was made for less than $20k and made back something like 400% of that), but most of these have need for minimal if any special effects. I Sell the Dead disguises and even takes advantage of its meager funds by presenting itself in a campy light, throwing in little comic-book-style drawn segues (a la My Boyfriend's Back) here and there. The whole movie has a somewhat fake look to it — which isn't necessarily bad, and seems as though it was done on purpose. The atmosphere suggests a sort of in-joke among the crew, as if they said, "Well, we're not working with a whole lot here, so let's make absolute sure that everyone who sees this knows it." They use shortcuts when they can (i.e. Valentine's face is so horribly scarred that she wears a mask, taking it off only when she's about to kill. Rather than spend money and time on making Bullock look grotesque enough to induce vomiting, they rely on the reactions of Monaghan and Fessenden — as well as that of what can only be a zombie, albeit an oddly affectionate one with admirable self-restraint — to provide viewers with what they need to imagine the hideousness.)
What genre this movie belongs to is debatable. It's got its fair share of blood and gore, but also of laugh-out-loud moments, and one would be hard-pressed to find anybody truly frightened by it. Often, the moments that are meant to be "scary" are the ones that are funniest, and not accidentally — the cast and crew knew exactly what they were doing.
The cast is low-key, with the exception of Monaghan and Perlman (who seems odd as a priest, but the choice makes more sense by the end). The script is well-written, the premise is funny enough, the rest of the not-too-well-known cast do well-enough with their respective parts that the movie probably still would have gotten as much notice as it did had it not had two fairly big names starring. The only complaint (and a minor one) to be made is that the pacing seems a bit off. The only real central plotline — thieving from the House of Murphy — doesn't get underway 'til about two-thirds into the movie; the overall theme of grave-robbing provides a mish-mash of misadventures — though maybe that was the point. McQuaid has admitted that he's been working on a sequel, tentatively titled The Further Adventures of Blake and Grimes. Based on the name, it can be assumed that it'll be another group of shorter tales surrounding a loose plot.
DVD Bonus Features
The Making of: an hour-long look at what went into the film (a.k.a. How to Make a Feature Film on a Very Tight Budget) includes brief interviews with cast and crew. Most of the footage looks as though one of the crew just started wandering around with a camera. Fun fact: the majority of the movie was shot on beautiful Staten Island, NY.
Visual Effects - Behind the Scenes: 13 minutes of interviews with and demonstrations by the visual effects team (including Matthew Connelly, Glenn McQuaid, Andy Milkis, Lawrence Nimrichter, Nick Martinelli, David Dam, Jeff Ferguson).
It also comes with a 40-page comic book version of the movie. It's literally a word-for-word translation (it easily could have served as the storyboard), so wait until after you've watched the movie to check out the book.
"I Sell the Dead" is on sale March 30, 2010 and is not rated. Comedy, Horror. Written and directed by Glenn McQuaid. Starring Alisdair Stewart, Brenda Cooney, Dominic Monaghan, Heather Bullock, John Speredakos, Larry Fessenden, Ron Perlman.
